SMS is more convenient...
By ahgong
@ahgong (10064)
Singapore
February 2, 2009 4:12am CST
Ever noticed how much SMS youths are sending out today?
With the proliferation of hand phones and cell phones, and the dropping prices of Short Messages, teens today prefer to send messages to their friends rather than to meet up with them.
Polls were carried out and found that the proportion of people having preference over SMS rather than meeting up face to face.
One of the common reason given is that SMS is a mire efficient way to keep in touch with her friends.
Reason being, people are keeping their phones with them for the while day. So they are more likely to reply to the messages faster as compared to leaving messages in a voice mail box or an email.
The other popular way youths keep track of their friends via their friend's blog. THey will keep detail blogs themselves. And make the effort to regular check out their friends' blog in order to keep abreast of what they are up to.
But messaging each other can only convery so much information each time. The limited 160 characters of each message only allows you to send this much in on message. As such, a new lingo form SMS has been invented to squeeze in as much as possible into each message.
And teen these days are using their hand phone to send messages so much, they are starting to use the same lingo in ther school work as well, much to the ire of their teachers.
The global survey which polled 58,486 youths aged between 11 and 18 in 31 countries world wide revealed that fewer Singapore teens prefer faces-to-face communication with their counterparts in the rest of the world.
Given the choice between messaging your friends and meeting them over a cup of coffee, which would you prefer?
5 people like this
6 responses
@youless (112584)
• Guangzhou, China
4 Feb 09
In fact I like sending SMS rather than calling people directly. As they may be busy at the moment and it's inconvenient to pick up the phone. Besides, it may charge their phone bills. If it's not necessary, I just send a SMS. And usually I use a software to send SMS for free. Isn't it the best?:)
I love China
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
4 Feb 09
You software to send messages for free?
What software are you using to send the messages for free?
How does the person receiving the message know that it is from you?
When they reply to the message, does it go to your software? Or does the message go to your phone?
1 person likes this
@kun2349 (23381)
• Singapore
3 Feb 09
U are very right, and i belong to the group of SMSing my way through.. lol =D I like to send messages because it's convenient and it's easy to act as a catching up tool with friends.. If i were to call a fren and he happens to be busy, they will tend to forget about calling back.. But a message might be different as they can take their time to reply if they have not deleted it yet.. haha
But of course, i will prefer to meet them over coffee and chat, because it's a totally different thing from SMSing.. On top of that, metting up with that person shows more sincerity in keeping contacting with each other ^_^
1 person likes this
1500 messages a month?!?
That is like frigging 50 messages a day!
I cannot even clock that many messages in a month! Let alone a day!
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
4 Jul 09
I am not the biggest fan of sms, but I can see how it can be convenient at times.
As a rule I prefer to talk to someone if not face to face at least in a way that I can hear her/his voice, but I have noticed that sometimes sms do come in handy.
Now if I am given the choice of meeting my friends face to face or just send a message on the phone I choose the first option of course:)
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
4 Jul 09
Yeah... me too!
But it seems to be getting harder and harder to do that. With different priorities taking up most of the schedule most of the time, I am finding it hard to even find time to think during the waking hours where people are willing to meet up.
I sure miss those days in school where I have enough free time even during a busy week to meet up with friends over coffee to share a few laughs! 
@underdogtoo (9579)
• Philippines
2 Feb 09
SMS is a part of life now and it has become quite convenient to send sms instead of wasting a lot of time waiting for your friends to show up. Cheers!!
1 person likes this
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
4 Jul 09
Hi ahgong! How have you been? I'm glad to see you here..it's been a while.
I would rather meet my friends for coffee or dinner. I am not much a fan of the texting thing. My daughter on the other hand is a different story. She loves texting! I think it would be like taking her leg if ever she had to do without texting. I don't understand it's importance but she tells me it is. She is pretty social to though. She would love to hang out with her friends versus texting them.1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
5 Jul 09
I have been busy. But good!
I see from my notifications that you are busy posting discussions as well.
Apologies that I cannot catch up on most of them.
Will be doing so soon.
Yeah... youths today really can text!
In fact, so many of them can hammer out a message on their keypad faster than I can type out the same message on my keyboard with all then fingers!
@Ysabel (1201)
• Philippines
4 Feb 09
hello, i am guilty! he he he
i am a very heavy texter! i send sms messages to clients, family members, friends, associates, etc... i can even text without looking at the keypad. that's how heavy user i am! i can't stand a minute with the cellphone on my hand. well, yes i do make phone calls if its extremely urgent. but sms thing is more convenient for me. i also key in words very fast. and i can send them at once. well, now that you mentioned it, i also forward quotes, jokes and encouraging words to my friends.
if given the chance, meeting them looks more interesting but having busy schedules and sometimes if its group thing, its so hard to get a common schedule. unlike during the holidays (christmas, new year vacation,) wherein we can squeeze in it but now that everyones on a work mode, texting is quicker, faster and most chosen.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
4 Feb 09
AH... so you are one of those who can type messages without looking at the keypad.
I am sure if I get to witness you messaging, your thumb is a blur above the keypad.
AND if we ever go into a competition, I may not beat you at messaging if I were to use a key board and you use the keypad!
Ever tried one of those "Who can message faster?" competitions?
Ever tried one of those "Who can message faster?" competitions?1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
4 Feb 09
Such competition were very popular at one stage.
Me? Well, I prefer to call rather than to message.
I usually start with one message to see if the recipient respond fast or not.
If the responses are immediate, I will usually follow up with a call.
I am terrible at typing on those little keys. So, given the chance, I rather talk than "chat" via messages. Too cumbersome to keep typing. And by the time I am done typing, interest in the topic that we are "chatting" about would have waned.
